CB antenna ground

[NonHyphenated American]

Can you ground a CB antenna in the same spot where an electronic device is grounded?

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[Kevin_D]

You want the antenna grounded at the base of the antenna.

Kevin

 

[Radio Guy]

You want the antenna grounded at the base of the antenna.

Kevin

Yes, not only does the antenna want to see a ground right a the base or feedpoint of an antenna, its wants to see a "ground plane" or large surface area of flat conductive metal under it. The antenna actually doesn't need a ground wire back to the battery, it only needs a ground plane and that can be floating in mid air as long as its connected to the base of the antenna.

The lower in frequency you go the more ground plane you need so an antenna for GMRS at 462MHz only needs a small area and 12" X 12" is more than adequate. For CB at 27MHz it needs to be much larger and even 4ft X 4ft is considered small, it wants something more like 9ft X 9ft to be completely happy.

If you have an antenna hanging in mid air with no ground plane but put a huge thick wire from it to the battery powering the radio the antenna will be very unhappy with this DC ground and it will beg you to provide a ground plane. I've actually heard some antennas complain and they can be very annoying.

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